Shamiana’s Sweetie

The Picture of India festival which commenced in Lausanne on November 3, 2017 opened with Sweetie Weds NRI (non-resident Indian) co-produced by Cyrus Dastur, (see "The long and the short,” Parsiana July 7, 2017), Dastur informs Parsiana. Indian culture is the theme being celebrated at Lausanne this year. The festival will feature Indian dance, music, yoga and will run workshops on various subjects for attendees. There are about four or five other Indian films being screened. "Lausanne is my favorite holiday spot and it is ironical that my first venture in producing should be acknowledged there… It is really humbling,” says the young man entering his fourth decade. This success emboldens him to enter his films in other festivals and locations — especially the Chinese market which "makes sense economically and financially,” due to its vast audience. He hopes "this is the first of many other festivals to come.”

(Left) Cyrus Dastur’s film (poster right) debuted in Lausanne

Dastur founded Shamiana Short Films (SSF) which is specifically into short movies and was invited to add zing to the recent launch of the fifth generation Land Rover Discovery SUV (Sport Utility Vehicle) at the Ministry of New executive center in South Bombay. SSF curated an hour’s program with four short films which were featured in a loop. Filming by nature "is non-intrusive and this was an interesting activity for about 400 to 500 viewers,” he elucidates. Apart from corporate brands such as Lexus, Volvo and Yes Bank, SSF curated the Lake festival in Bangalore for the state government of Karnataka, states Dastur.
Dastur says he is surprised at the number of persons who follow SSF as he anchored a BloggeratiWebinar a month back. He fielded about 125 questions in an hour with thousands of followers logged on. The moderators culled the questions. The SSF chief executive officer was impressed with the awareness and sophistication of the questions from the audience ranging from 15-50 years. "It gave me an understanding of what is liked. My only regret is that it was not slotted for a longer time — it is unfair to others” (who did not get their questions aired).
The cinematic professional states "there is enough appetite for good film… a huge appetite for short films.” In an effort to reach out to more cities and people, he is thinking of television and launching into theater. But he is not talking… yet.